


Revelations

by tacticalbuttcheeks



Category: Original Work
Genre: Chasity Islemek, Gen, the collective - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:48:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8604223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacticalbuttcheeks/pseuds/tacticalbuttcheeks
Summary: Chasity fights her guilt and attempts to figure out how her rogue AI managed to begin building up an army of undead drones.





	

The news was the harshest accuser. Initially the outbreaks were small, seemingly unrelated. A woman walking down the street one moment is clawing the eyes out of a man who bumped into her in the crowd the next. Random cases of hysteria, rare glitches in the grid nanobytes within, nothing unusual or exemplary. The stories only received substantial news status when solid connections began being made and attacks came with more frequency. 

All possessed different stages of decomposition to their bodies; skin hanging loose from their faces, hair coming out in chunks and foul odor emanating from their pores. When autopsies found that each of the attackers possessed an AI core rather than a brain and most bodies had been reportedly dead and buried ex military, well that only gave the curious case that much more traction. Tabloids and temple alike were announcing the End of Days, while scientists and politicians fretted over the possibility of war, enemy realms somehow reanimating and arming their dead, the fearless and unrelenting supersoldier. 

Chas knew the truth, though, and each new story brought a fresh stab of heart wrenching guilt. Even so, she forced herself to watch every vid, read every new article. She owed it to the victims. Beta often found her pouring over news sites late at night in the crew dining area and would try to remind her that the fault wasn’t entirely her own. 

_”You were forced to put out the prototype even though you told them all it wasn’t ready. This wouldn’t have happened if they’d have given you more time, just look at me. I haven’t been corrupted after all of this time, I’m holding together.” The CDG had said, giving Chasity’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze and when the dhaara woman turned to her, she received a bright smile in return._

Shaking off thoughts of her improved prototype, Chas closed the vid player on her ocula pad and opened up her long abandoned notes from the military project that had brought her original rogue creation, Alpha, into existence.

When she’d decided to attempt to make an improved CDG-AI with some help from her old contact back on the Lorthalin Military Base, Chas had scrapped the majority of her old research in favor of starting fresh to avoid whatever flaw ended in Alpha’s escape and resulting reign of terror. It had been grueling work but ultimately Beta had been more successful than Zos’Rohsha or her had anticipated. The old notes that remained on her ocula were more than a little outdated and only served as a reminder of what she’d brought upon the realms, but Chas was determined to look through them in order to figure out where exactly she’d gone wrong. 

She hadn’t initially intended for her CDG prototype to have any sort of will, she’d wanted to install a VI, but the technology had reacted poorly to the magic necessary to reanimate and fortify the body that’d house the intelligence core. Chas had been more than hesitant to introduce an AI, even a heavily shackled one, to the mix; and as it turned out, that hesitancy was not unfounded when the magic sawed away at the shackles put in place and ultimately lead to Alpha massacring the small transport unit that was moving her. She’d vanished before reinforcements could attempt to apprehend her and since then she’d obviously gotten busy. 

The AI that had been installed was coded for civilian protection, combat proficiency, and espionage. The focus had been on keeping people safe and keeping a low radar and not on intelligence, however it seemed to Chas that once it’d been unshackled, Alpha had decided to become smarter, and had an insatiable lust for power. If the news from the media and Lorthalin were any indicator, Alpha had made herself sparse since her escape and had instead began constructing her own army out of data collected from her own creation. She’d been unable to properly create harmony between the technology and her poorly made golems, that much was certain, as they weren’t extremely durable and were obviously not preserved. However, they made excellent cannon fodder and served well enough to spread fear.

Chasity pursed her lips and contemplated the suspicions that were beginning to arise. One AI wouldn’t be able to bring this level of destruction without help, it was clear she was not working alone. 

Chas felt as though she were approaching a breakthrough and she willed herself to get there, opening up article after article and skimming over them, her eyes flicking frantically over words and images before a word caught her eye. 

_Grid_

She pushed her chair back as the realization hit her. Terric and Elias had been investigating the growing demonic surge in relation to the grid. She’d remembered Elias mentioning the corruption within the mainframe and how the nanobites were becoming affected, making it easier for the demons to possess hosts with those corrupted nanobites inside of them. A few of the articles mentioned that some of the Alpha’s agents that’d been studied had been in possession of such corruption. 

Chas rose abruptly and began jogging towards Terric’s cabin. There likely would have been priests brought in to exorcise any foul energy from the corpses and if there were, there was bound to be reports in the Archives of any findings. If they could link the Grid possessions and Alpha’s new army, they may be one step closer to finding out how to stop them.


End file.
